News from EPI ›NewsFlash: Money dwindles for job training

Money dwindles for job training

Federal funding for an important program essential to America’s competitiveness has fallen from $63 per worker in 1986 to only $35 per worker in 2006, according to today’s Snapshot by EPI policy director Ross Eisenbrey. The U.S. Department of Labor, the primary source of federal money for job training, cut training and employment assistance expenditures by nearly a billion dollars, after adjusting for inflation, since 1986. The DOL increasingly relies on rapid re-employment programs to get workers into jobs without regard to the skill level or quality of the job.

“The government has failed to put its money where its mouth is,” said Eisenbrey. “Perhaps a new Congress will change this policy and show more willingness to invest in the education and skills of working Americans.”

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Economic Policy Institute

EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.